AFRICA: Consideration of an urgent need to increase green finance progresses

Experts are calling on African countries to integrate higher costs into their policies to manage and prevent climate risks. The benefits of such an approach were presented at the international seminar on greening the African financial system, held from June 25 to 27, 2019, in Casablanca, Morocco.

African countries will generally need to integrate the environmental adaptation of practices into their economic policies. This is the main recommendation made by experts from 12 African countries, France, the United Kingdom, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Meeting from June 25 to 27, 2019 in Casablanca, the Moroccan capital, the experts of the international seminar on the greening of the African financial system, presented the benefits that African countries can derive in the development of green finance.

“Although opportunities on the continent are enormous in several sectors, such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy and others, Africa now attracts only 5% of international green financial flows,” said Ibrahimi, Managing Director of Casablanca Finance City Authority, in his opening speech.

However, the continent has many reasons to mobilise more climate funds. “First, green finance will stimulate the continent; second, it will allow Africa to move directly to green infrastructure, such as renewable energy; third, it will create business opportunities for financial institutions; fourth, it will protect the financial sector from climate and environmental risks,” said Dr. Ma Jun, Director of the Research Centre for Green Finance Development at Tsinghua University and Chairman of China’s Green Finance Committee.